How to Make Family Nature Study Part of Your Homeschool

Nature study reduces stress, improves focus and concentration, and helps your family get a little exercise—but you knew that already. What you may not know is how easy it is to integrate nature study into your homeschool routine, even if you don’t know a robin from a wren when you get started. With these simple activities, you can start a nature study program that’s fun to do and easy to keep up.

Give your kids the camera. You’ll be amazed by how focused they are and by what captures their attention in your backyard or the park. (My kids use the cameras on their iPods or my daughter’s Polaroid-esque Fujifilm Instax Mini to snap photos, but if I were buying something specifically for nature photo sessions, I’d look at something like the Kidizoom Action Cam—I think they’d love the bike mount option, and it’s designed to be durable and waterproof, two qualities I frequently wish more of my belongings had.)

Take a color hike. Celebrate the beauty of the changing leaves this fall with a color hike. Hit the hardware store to put together a collection of autumnal paint chips, then match them to leaves, flowers, bark, moss, and more on your next nature walk. (If you are in the northeastern United States or Canada, download the Leafsnap app to help you identify the leaves you find as you go. The developers—which include the Smithsonian and Columbia University—are adding info from other parts of the United States, too, and there’s a UK version, so you can test whether it works well for tree ID in your area.)

Make it a scavenger hunt. Whether you’re in the yard or on the trail, kids will delight in searching for something smooth, something rough, something shiny, something slimy, and objects that fit the other descriptions on your scavenger hunt lists. Shelli has some great ideas for outdoor scavenger hunts if you want a more specific plan. (If your kids get excited about nature scavenger hunts, they may be inspired to start a nature collection. If so, you should definitely check out Cabinet of Curiosities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World—it’s written by a nature collector who started his first cabinet of nature curiosities when he was 6 years old and grew up to become a nature writer. It’s such a fun book, packed with interesting information for nature collectors.)

Keep a journal. Okay, you’re a terrible artists and you couldn’t draw a pine tree to save your life. Who cares? If your kids see you sweating the details in your nature journal, they’ll want to follow suit. (And do we really have to tell you that your pine tree is probably better than you think?) I found Clare Walker Leslie’s Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You incredibly helpful when we were getting started with our backyard nature journals because it had lots of specific advice for what to look for and how to set up a page, plus I appreciated the drawing advice for things like leaves and pinecones, even though my sketches will never be as pretty as hers.

Count your blessings. Sharpen your observation and your counting skills by choosing a natural object (like rabbits, yellow flowers, trees, or ferns) and counting how many times you spot it on your walk. 

Stock up on identification books. Your photos and journal entries beg for identification, so make it easy on yourself by investing in a few good identification guides. Sure, you can look them up online, but flipping through pages lets the whole family work together to figure out the name of that cool butterfly you just saw. (The best tip a naturalist ever gave me was to pick just one or two things to focus on at a time for nature walks—it makes you observe those things more closely, which means you can identify them more easily.) For young kids, the Take-Along Guides (including Trees, Leaves, and Bark and Frogs, Toads, and Turtles) or Peterson’s Field Guides for Young Naturalists are excellent—with lots of information in an accessible, easily digestible format. Older kids might appreciate guides that focus on specific slices of nature: The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grown-Ups, Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States, and the Sibley Guides are among our family’s favorites.

Keep a nature table. Set aside a designated space, and let your kids collect one or two items on every nature walk. Whether it’s a cool rock, a pretty flower, or a bird feather, they can add it to your nature table for the whole family to admire. (My kids enjoyed taking this further and making whole nature scenes—they got inspiration from Waldorf-inspired books like Making Flower Children and Making Peg Dolls.)

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Readaloud of the Week: The Dollhouse Murders

The Dollhouse Murders

By Betty Ren Wright

Just in time for Halloween reading, The Dollhouse Murders is a just-spooky-enough mystery that will have everyone glued to her seat waiting for the next chapter.

On the surface, The Dollhouse Murders is a pretty classic ghost mystery story. Amy Treloar, who is taking a much-needed break from her family to stay with her aunt in the old family mansion, discovers a dollhouse in the attic. At first she's thrilled: The dollhouse is designed to look exactly like the house she's staying in, and the dollhouse family looks like the family who lived there: Amy's grandparents, her Aunt Claire, and her dad, who was just a little boy at the time. But then Amy notices something strange. Wherever she leaves the dolls, they're always in a different position when she comes back. And when she discovers that her great-grandparents were murdered in the house, she realizes that the dolls keep returning to the same positions they were in when her great-grandparents were murdered. Is the dollhouse trying to tell her something? Aunt Claire, who discovered her grandmother's body in the parlor and whose then-fiance died in a car accident the same night, isn't ready to talk about what happened to her parents, but the ghosts of the dollhouse aren't willing to be quiet about the past any longer. 

What makes it a great readaloud: There’s more to this book than just a good ghost story, though—even though this book is prime read-it-with-the-flashlight-under-your-covers material. Amy is a genuinely interesting heroine, trying to figure out how to be a good sister to her brain-damaged sister while still having her own life and her own friends. Her aunt is equally complex—so torn by guilt about her teenage rebellion that she can't seem to make peace with her past. Solving the mystery of the dollhouse murders also helps Amy and Claire come to terms with themselves, so the solution (which feels a little ham-handed, honestly, on its own) is much more satisfying. Bonus: Random references to things like Charlie bath powder will remind parents of the awesomeness of living in the 1980s.

But be aware: Part of the fun of this book is its atmospheric spookiness, but the dollhouse ghosts might be too creepy for anxious or very sensitive kids.

Quotable: “Dolls can’t move by themselves, she told herself, and felt goosebumps pop up on her arms.”

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Bespoke Book List: Great Books that Take You Back in Time

To celebrate H.G. Wells’ 151st birthday this month, we’ve collected some of the most engaging descendants of The Time Machine. Wells wasn’t the first writer to send a character through time to explore wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff, but his time-traveling gentleman inspired generations of writers to explore the future and the past and gave science-fiction space on literary bookshelves. Grab your sonic screwdriver and do the past-future shuffle with one of these time-travel tales.

Time and Again by Jack Finney
Si Morley agrees to participate in time travel experiment that will take him back to 1880s New York City—but he doesn’t expect to fall in love with the past or the young woman he meets there.
(High school)

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Billy Pilgrim is unstuck in time, and lives his life simultaneously, travel- ing in time from his childhood to his alien abduction to his shattering experience as an American prisoner of war in World War II Germany. 
(High school)

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
If you read only one of Connie Willis’ time travel books, make it this one. Historian Ned Henry needs a break, but he’s not going to get one when he time travels to Victorian England in this P.G. Wodehouse-meets-Doctor Who romp of a book. 
(High school)

Kindred by Octavia Butler
When Dana travels back in time from 1976 to antebellum Maryland, she learns first-hand how hard life is for a black woman in pre-Civil War America. But the situation is even more complicated than she first realizes.
(High school)

Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
When a restless Tom hears the clock strike 13, he discovers a secret garden and a girl named Hatty. But which of their times is the real one?
(Middle grades)

The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
When Hannah opens the door at her family’s Passover Seder, she is transported to 1942 Poland, where Jews like her family are being rounded up and sent to camps.
(Middle grades)

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes from someone who seems to know things before they happen— but what does the visitor from the future want her to help him accomplish?
(Middle grades)

The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
When Tolly comes to spend the holidays with his grandmother in the vast and ancient family manor, he discovers that the past is very much alive at Green Knowe.
(Middle grades)

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
Charlotte feels out of place at her new boarding school, but that’s nothing compared to waking up in 1918 with everyone calling her Clare.
(Middle grades)

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley
While visiting her uncle’s house in the English countryside, dreamy Penelope discovers that she can visit the 16th century—and becomes caught up in a plot to put Queen Mary of Scotland on the British throne.
(Middle grades)

When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson
Anna’s always been a lonely misfit, but when she meets Marnie on her summer holiday, everything changes. When Marnie suddenly disappears, Anna discovers that her first friend was not exactly who she thought she was.
(Middle grades)

Time at the Top by Edward Ormondroyd

Life in the 20th century hasn’t been particularly kind to Susan—so she’s thrilled when the elevator doors of her building open up and deposit her 80 years in the past.
(Elementary)

The Magic Half by Annie Barrows
As she’s unpacking her bedroom in her family’s new house, Miri accidentally travels back to 1935 and she meets Molly, who could really use a friend.
(Elementary)

A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones
A case of mistaken identity (or is it?) brings Vivian Smith from the London Blitz evacuations to Time City, which exists outside of the time/space continuum. But Time City—and all of history with it—is in trouble, and Vivian may be the only one who can help.
(Middle grades)

Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander
That mysterious habit cats have of disappearing and reappearing right in front of you gets explained by the author of the Chronicles of Prydain: some cats, like Gareth, can travel in time—and every now and then, one might take his owner along for the ride.  (Elementary)

This list was originally published in the summer 2016 issue of HSL.

Stuff We Like :: 9.29.17

Oh, hey, it’s fall! Let’s just ignore the thermometer and enjoy it.

around the web

I have actually been doing this with my students this year, and it really does make a difference. (I didn’t know it was A Thing, though. Cool.)

Look what’s up for the 2017 Kirkus Prize! (I am cheering for Bronze and Sunflower, but there are a lot of good ones this year.)

You guys probably know that I’m always trying to get people to read Lockwood & Co. (and it’s almost Halloween so I should probably step that up again), about a team of adolescent ghost hunters in an alternate—and haunted—London. It’s always sounded like the perfect set-up for a television series, and now it might actually be one!

Story of my life.

At home/school/life

on the blog: I'm a big fan of DIY curriculum, and here's my method for putting together my own homeschool curriculum.

one year ago: Great books for developing an everyday writing habit

two years ago: How to set—and achieve—learning goals in your homeschool

Reading list

I'm just about a quarter of the way into Magpie Murders (based on Suzanne's Library Chicken report), but I am already loving this quirky mystery-within-a-mystery.

I have been reading The Iliad and The Odyssey (I think the linked ones have ended up being my preferred version, but I could change my mind. Again.) over and over again this fall for my Greek humanities class, and it's reminded me how amazing it is to read something more than once or twice. I think I get very seduced by all the Shiny New Books (and I'd miss tons of great reads if I weren't!), but there's definitely something to be said for digging into familiar texts to illuminate new pieces of them.

My daughter is reading Akata Witch (hey, another Suzanne pick!) and comparing it to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for a paper for world literature. I'm just enjoying the book!

At home

The Good Place is back!

I'm not saying it's been a long week, but I am saying I'm glad it's sidecar season. Even if it's still 90 degrees. (I guess there’s not actually a sidecar season, but I have to switch from negronis at some point so I can appreciate my first springtime negroni every year, right?)

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How to Homeschool Preschool

You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment or experience to help introduce your 3- or 4-year-old to the joys of learning.

Does this sound familiar? You’re delighted with your decision to homeschool your preschooler—until panic hits, and you wonder how you’ll ever be able to teach your child everything she needs to know to graduate high school. Your first instinct is to start searching for the perfect curriculum, but the truth is, you don’t need a curriculum to teach preschool. So how do you do it? That’s easy, but only if you love exploring the world and learning new things at least as much as your child does.

YOUR􏰒􏰈 TEACHING INSTRUMENT IS YOUR VOICE􏰊

Talk to your child. Be patient. Tell her all the simple things you take for granted. “Tree.” “Green leaf. Isn’t it pretty?” “Do you like carrots? I like carrots.” As kids get older, your conversations will get more sophisticated. Ask your child questions. Answer their questions. Teach them everything you know through conversation and story. (Don’t worry about what you don’t know. As the questions get harder, teach your child how to find answers by letting them watch you search for answers in books, at the library, on the Internet, and by talking to others.) 

YOUR 􏰒􏰈TEACHING RESOURCE IS THE LIBRARY􏰊

Take frequent trips to the library. At least once a month, let your child pick whatever books he likes. Let him explore the library, play with the toys there, and take him to story times. Letting kids explore and play at the library will teach them it’s a fun place.

Reading, arithmetic, and all those other fundamentals can be learned by any child (or adult) who has a desire to learn. Don’t worry if your 4- or 5-year-old isn’t reading yet. Some children learn to read early; others aren’t ready until they’re 7 or 8. This has no bearing on their intelligence. It’s simply how they’re developing.

When you think about it, there are more important things young children should be learning. You may want to write a list of what is most important to you to impart to your children. It may look something like this: A love of learning, tenacity, kindness, and creativity.

Foster a love of learning by exploring the world with your child and being fascinated by it. Every child is delighted by those small things we take for granted—flowers, butterflies, a beetle on the sidewalk. If you don’t delight in these things, neither will your child.

Help your child find answers to his questions. If he asks a question at an inconvenient time, say, “That’s a great question. We can look it up later. Remind me, OK?”

If you show your children how you plan, set goals, and carry out your daily tasks, you will be a wonderful role model of tenacity. As your child takes on a project, be there with him. Don’t take over, but help him when he gets stuck.

To teach children how to be kind, we must be kind ourselves. Kindness is more than being kind to people. Teach children to be kind to animals and even bugs.

To foster creativity, let your children play and create. You won’t need to do any planning for this; just don’t squash their natural creativity!

Chances are with this formula, they will learn more than they need to know to pass traditional preschool, but you probably won’t need to worry about that. Enthusiastic parents don’t offer a child a curriculum—they offer them the world. 

THE ULTIMATE PRESCHOOL TOOLKIT

Activities:

• Read together
• Spend time in nature
• Visit interesting places
• Make-believe
• Games
• Share your own work with your child

Toys:

The best toys require a child to use his imagination.

• Toy animals
• Any kind of building set
• Puzzles
• Puppets
• Pretend food

School supplies:

• Different kinds of paper
• Crayons, markers, pencils
• Scissors, glue, and tape
• Paint
• Air-dry modeling clay
• Other art materials from craft stores or the recycling bin

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Book Nerd: Library Chicken Weekly Scoreboard (9.26.17)

Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!

Last week was big for Library Chicken HQ: after an unexpected hurricane delay, we had our first session of Middle School Monday classes at the homeschool hybrid academy, which means that I need to stop having so much fun reading whatever I want and get back to the list of books we’ll be tackling in class!

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen

Sequel to The Three-Body Problem. This science fiction novel (translated from the Chinese) imagines worldwide responses to the threat of an alien invasion that is still a couple of centuries away. I haven’t read much Chinese sf and I was fascinated by the differences in tone; there’s a sort of fatalistic stoicism that I haven’t generally encountered in American sf. Is that a cultural difference? Unique to this author? Unique to this series? Clearly I need to read more Chinese science fiction to find out (as soon as I finish the third book in this trilogy). (LC Score: +1)

[Note from Amy: I recently read Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy, an anthology of sci-fi short stories, and I totally picked up the same note of fatalistic stoicism in every one of the stories. Anec-data does not equal truth, but still—we definitely picked up the same vibe.]

The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi

Oh, man, I love Oyeyemi so much. This is her first novel, written when she was eighteen years old (EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD), and I couldn’t put it down. Jess, our eight-year-old protagonist, picks up an unusual friend (named TillyTilly) when she is in Nigeria, visiting her mother’s family. There are themes here that Oyeyemi will echo later on in her excellent ghost story, White is For Witching (that I now want to reread), and as is typical, she leaves certain plot elements vague and unresolved. And again, the writing is so good I don’t even mind about the unresolved bits. EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD, people. (LC Score: +1)

Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest by Jen Doll

I first encountered Doll as a blogger and internet essayist on the late and very much lamented website the-toast.net, and I’ll eagerly read anyone who was published on The Toast. This is a memoir built around the many weddings Doll has attended. It’s a very cute idea, but the structure is a bit flimsy, especially as she tries to turn every anecdote into a deep meaningful moment. She has more wedding misadventures than most—as she jokes at one point, the memoir could be subtitled something like “Jen Doll Had a Drinking Problem There For a While”, but by the end of the book I actually found it more concerning than funny. (LC Score: +1)

Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism by Chris Jennings

New Harmony, Brook Farm, Oneida, the Shakers, and the Icarians: Jennings introduces us to a range of American communal societies in this entertaining overview. It turns out (who knew?) that the type of people who found these utopian communities are fascinating. Sometimes a bit terrifying, but always fascinating. I would like to immediately request full and detailed modern biographies of Robert Owen (of New Harmony), George Ripley (of Brook Farm), and MOST IMPORTANTLY, Frances (Fanny) Wright, founder of Nashoba. I need to know MORE. (LC Score: +1)

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne

As I’ve mentioned before, Hawthorne was an early resident of Brook Farm, though he barely lasted six months. The Blithedale Romance, set at a suspiciously familiar utopian community known as Blithedale, is supposed to be his satire of that time, but he has little to say about the community itself. Instead, he gives us a romantic triangle with one man and two women: a Remarkable Woman With a Sketchy Past, and a Pure-Hearted Innocent. Unsurprisingly, the Remarkable Woman, though brave, intelligent, and beautiful, is brought low by her unconventionality, almost destroying the Pure-Hearted Innocent in the process. The Marble Faun adds an additional character (a romantic rectangle?) but keeps the Remarkable Woman vs. Pure-Hearted Innocent dynamic, stretching out the narrative with a large helping of anti-Italian and anti-Catholic bigotry. As you might suspect, I was not a huge fan of The Marble Faun, especially the coy ending where Hawthorne declines to explain what just happened, much less why (which also annoyed the readers and reviewers of the time, forcing him to add a grudgingly explanatory afterword to later editions). (LC Score: +1, finished the Library of American collection!)

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Reread for Apocalyptic Lit class. The Age of Miracles is the first novel I assigned to my Apocalyptic Lit students, even though it’s actually a coming of age story, cleverly set during the (possible) end of the world. (I’m happy to report that it was a hit.) (LC Score: 0, off my own shelves)

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

Amy recommended this book to me and I’m so glad I read it. Foster talks about literary analysis in terms of memory (or intertextuality, aka how texts influence each other), patterns, and symbols, providing a handy and entertaining cheat guide for students of literature. Moral: Amy is always right and should probably just be giving me a to-read list each week. (LC Score: 0, got my own copy so I can pass it along to the high schoolers in the family)

[Note from Amy: Ha! Between this and the Faulkner I might be able to retire from book recommending in a blaze of glory.]

Library Chicken Score for 9/26/17: 5
Running Score: 105

On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week

• The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi (had to check this one out AGAIN)
• Death’s End by Cixin Liu (final book in the trilogy)
• Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (the only Tey novel I have left to read <sniff>)
• Hawthorne: A Life by Brenda Wineapple (I will enjoy judging Nathaniel after reading all those novels)

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How TV Time Fits into Our Homeschool’s Daily Routine

Shelli's family watches documentaries every day—and screen time has become an important ritual for their homeschool routine. Here's why their daily documentary works for them.

I commit that primordial parenting sin: I let my children watch a lot of television. And not only that, I let them watch during lunch and dinner. If you are shaking your head and thinking, Never would I allow my children to do this!, I don’t blame you. There was a time when I thought the same thing, and I fought against so much TV viewing. But in my house, I felt like a fish trying to swim upstream because I was the only one spoiling the fun. My husband loves watching TV, but fortunately, he’s not the kind of person to waste time in front of the TV or watch useless programming. On the contrary, he uses it to learn and relax. It took me a while to jump on board this boat.

I think the reason I fought against it is because when I was little, I usually ate alone with my food on a TV tray, watching TV My siblings were so much older than me that they were rarely home at mealtimes, and my father worked late, and my mother would wait to eat with him when he got home. When I became an adult, I longed to have a family meal around a table. Now I realize mealtimes at a table are more helpful to families who don’t spend all day together. My husband works at home, and we talk frequently during the day.

We decided we should make a habit of watching documentaries at least once a day, and with our Apple TV and Netflix, we have hundreds of documentaries we can watch. The thing about watching at lunch is that we always have this time to sit down together. During other parts of the day, one or more of us is too busy, but during meals we can relax, and the boys stay quieter and eat better while they watch television. So we watch part of a documentary every day at this time for about 30 minutes. (During dinner we may watch a cooking show or something else fun, though usually educational in its own way.)

The boys love the documentaries because they have been watching since they were babies. They don’t think documentaries are boring. There is something about watching them every day as a family that makes them extra special, and not only that, the documentaries have spurred interests, deeper inquiries, and good conversation, too. I can now challenge anyone who says that watching TV is passive and non-interactive! It all depends on how you do it.

For many years, we had to watch nature documentaries, i.e. documentaries about animals, because for little boys, any other documentary was a little boring. But now as they’re getting older, I see their interests expanding. They loved a documentary reenacting the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, one about the Vikings, and they’re enjoying the more complex NOVA science documentaries too. They have probably learned more about science through these documentaries than all the science classes at the nature center or any of the science books I’ve read to them.

We have watched so many documentaries now that sometimes we visit the same place with a new photographer. “Oh, I remember seeing this place in another documentary,” one of us will say. Or we’ll notice when two documentaries use the same footage, which rarely happens, but occasionally it does. It’s always exciting to see something completely new, and this happens often. “Wow. I never knew that!” or “Where is that?!” we’ll cry out. Sometimes we are critical of the documentaries, and we discuss how the director may have manipulated the footage to make it too dramatic. Though we realize sometimes nature documentarians have to manipulate images or set the scene, we appreciate when this is done sparingly and only when necessary. So we have our favorites (BBC, PBS Nature), and then we have those we are wary of because too much license is taken.

We have also become huge fans of David Attenborough, considered a “rock star” to us geeky, documentary-watching families. I even went so far as to write him a letter, thank- ing him for his excellent programming, and he wrote me back a hand-written letter! (Swoon! I have framed his letter.)

I teach geography with the documentaries. I keep our globe handy, and I’ll find the place the documentary is taking us to. I’ll point it out to the boys, and we’ll all huddle around the map for a few moments. Sometimes the 6-year-old will go get the globe when I forget. I’m impressed that my boys know more about our world than I ever did at their age.

I have lived and traveled abroad in real life, and I will say that nothing quite compares to being in a foreign land, smelling the smells, listening to the sounds, and trying to speak the language. You can’t capture that with video. However, when you watch a documentary every single day over many years, it does something to your awareness of your place in the universe. You begin to piece together that vague and indescribable puzzle of how our world is functioning, and it reminds you that your troubles and cares are very minor in the big scheme of things.

You are also reminded that most of our world is incredibly beautiful. There are places I will never go, but I’m so glad someone ventured there so that I can see it through their lens. My boys have watched a tiger tend to her cubs and followed the dolphins in their cooperative effort to hunt for food. We have seen blizzards rage in Antarctica and watched Snowy Owls feed their chicks in the Arctic. We’ve seen tribes in the South American jungle who live strikingly different lives than we do, and we’ve followed an eccentric chef on his travels around the world.

You also begin to see how humans and animals are so similar.... a reminder that we are actually animals ourselves. We have similar needs, and our basic daily tasks are the same. When there is an anomaly in nature, we ooh and ahh, such as watching the male seahorse carry the eggs with his babies in a pouch on the front of his tail until the babies emerge, fully developed. It’s fascinating because it’s so out of the ordinary.

I have also learned that, as someone in a documentary so eloquently stated, “Life depends on death.” Everyday I see how this is true, and even as I sit there eating my lunch, my life depends on the death of other living things as well. The best documentaries do not gloss over how dangerous it is in the wild and how cruel nature can appear to be; yet somehow this realization has been uplifting to me. I am grateful for my life, and I fear death very little.

I no longer worry about the amount of television my boys watch. I have realized it’s up to me to make sure their lives have a variety of activities in them. So I schedule time for everything. We read books, do meaningful lessons, cook together, visit museums, play games together, and when the weather cooperates, we go outside together. When you look at all our activities as a whole, television is a mere fraction of that, but truth to tell, those documentaries are high on my priority list now, too.

I will even go so far as to say that spending the last few years watching nature documentaries everyday with my family has been one of the best experiences of my life. It is nothing like my experience watching TV alone while I was a child. We are a family who learns together while we eat. I have even seen the benefits of watching movies, children’s programming or the cooking shows we love because it is not a passive viewing. We don’t sit all day idly watching TV. We have specific goals to achieve, and the television is one of the tools we use to achieve those goals. When you gather around your television and use it to spark conversation and deeper learning, it’s a very worthy thing.

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Readaloud of the Week: Frindle

Frindle

By Andrew Clements

Buy on Amazon

As a long-time logophile, I’ve more than once seized on an obscure word and proceeded to use it as much as possible in casual conversation (“Sorry to eat and absquatulate!”), but the hero of Frindle does me one better: He makes up a word that, meme-like, becomes a part of the English language.

It all starts with Mrs. Granger, Nick’s infamously tough fifth grade English teacher. Nick is a bright kid, smart enough to have the art of distracting his teachers down to a science, and he quickly cottons to Mrs. Granger’s weakness: the dictionary. “Where do words come from?” he asks, and Mrs. Granger’s answer gives him a brilliant idea: He’ll make up a word himself. Soon, all of his classmates are calling their pens “frindles,” following Nick’s lead, and Mrs. Granger is apparently horrified by their off-dictionary vocabulary. Before he knows it, the word “frindle” has swept the school, the city, and finally the nation, and when the story ends ten years later, “frindle” has worked its way into the dictionary, too—much, Nick is surprised to discover, to his old teacher’s delight.

What makes it a great readaloud: Besides being a fun and funny elementary book, Frindle raises great questions about how language develops and who decides what a word means. Sure, the book sticks with fairly straightforward answers, but it points the way to deeper discussions about how words have entered the lexicon (such as “truther” and “humblebrag,” which debuted in Merriam-Webster in 2017) or changed their meaning over time (see “nice” or “awful”). Frindle also encourages young readers to get excited about the possibilities of language for themselves, whether they want to make up new words like Nick or just use words in new ways.

But be aware: Clements’ books are delightful, but a lot of them do follow a similar pattern (kid has a great idea, great idea kids gets in trouble, kid is eventually vindicated, harmony is restored) —Frindle is no exception.

Quotable: “Who says dog means dog?” 

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New Books: The Exact Location of Home

The Exact Location of Home

By Kate Messner

Buy on Amazon

The Exact Location of Home
by Kate Messner
(Middle grades)

Zig’s a tinkerer, so when he lucks into a box of miscellaneous electronics at a garage sale, he’s intrigued by the GPS unit inside. As he’s checking out geocaching locations, he notices one poster with a name that could be his dad’s—and he wonders if it could be his dad’s way of contacting him, leaving him clues in the geocache. It’s a bright spot in an increasingly difficult time: His fun-loving but perpetually busy dad has been MIA for years, his mom’s waitress job is barely covering the grocery bill, and their nice landlady has been replaced by her son, who says they’ve got to pay their back rent or he’s going to evict them. Zig never thought he’d be sleeping in the car and sneaking in a shower at school or that a family shelter would start to feel like home, but that’s what happens when they can’t come up with the rent payment. 

Too ashamed to tell his friends (including Gianna, whom you may know from The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z—and if you don't, you should) what’s happening with his life, Zig can’t understand why his mom refuses to ask his dad for help—Zig knows if he knew what was happening, his dad would be there in a second to rescue them. He starts searching for geocache clues more and more, trying to figure out where his dad really is and what he might be trying to tell Zig. 

Homelessness is one of those Issues that used to pop up in my Scholastic book order form (along with Teen Pregnancy, Child Abuse, and Drugs), and it would be very easy for this book to veer into After-School Special territory. It doesn’t though, thanks in large part to Zig, who manages to be a normal, slightly geeky kid who just happens to become homeless. There’s no drama about it, just a slow, inevitable process of not being able to catch up the bills—his mom picks up every shift she can, but waitresses don’t make a lot of money, and she’s still trying to finish nursing school. Zig never falls into the stereotypical role of Homeless Boy; he’s just Zig, who happens to be homeless right now. This book manages to walk the fine line of being an actual story about an interesting person and addressing an important social issue.

Readers will suspect long before Zig that there’s a lot of wish-fulfillment going on in his geocaching search for his absent father, but the clues are fun to follow and his adventure’s resolution has surprising sweetness. It’s also interesting to see the role school plays in Zig’s new life: School is a place where he can safely take a shower, get free lunch, and get support from a kind librarian who notices when a kid is missing school supplies, but it’s also a place where people might tease him for being poor and where clueless teachers talk about helping “the less fortunate” while some of those less fortunate are squirming in the desks in front of them.

Zig sees the world as one big circuit, and his engineer’s brain wishes life could be as simple as fixing a broken toaster: Once you find the problem and repair it, the circuit completes and it starts working again. Having to figure out how things can work even when parts are missing or broken is part of Zig’s journey.

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Stuff We Like :: 9.22.17

Happy New Year! (Even if you don’t celebrate Rosh Hashanah, everybody could use a bonus fresh start, right? :)) We have had a wonderful week because my sister-in-law and her sweet family (including my new baby nephew who is perfect in every way) are visiting and I got to complain a lot about how terrible Agamemnon is while teaching the Iliad. (He’s the Worst, though!)

around the web

I had never heard of witness trees, but now I’m fascinated. (And they remind me of Katherine Applegate’s new book, which is at the top of my reading list.)

Ha! Excerpts from the all-girl remake of Lord of the Flies.

You know I will read anything about libraries in history, so obviously they had me at “Jacobean traveling library.”

at home/school/life

on the blog: We’re bringing back the newsletter!

on the blog: Maggie has some great advice for when your student can read but doesn’t want to.

one year ago: Carrie on why homeschool parents need field trips, too

two year ago: An imaginary friend helps a boy through a tough time in Crenshaw

reading list

My 10-year-old and I have been laughing our way through the Fudge books together, and I’m sad we just finished Fudge-a-mania because that means we’ve only got Double Fudge left.

I’ve got Sourdough waiting for me on my bedside table—hoping I have a chance to pick it up before the library demands it back!

I ordered a copy of the 10th anniversary edition of Veganomicon. My copy is pretty battered at this point, and I couldn’t resist 25 new recipes.

at home

I’m still trying to find my balance between teaching and working and homeschooling and mom-ing, but I keep reminding myself that I’m incredibly lucky that I love all the things I’m trying to balance. 

Suzanne and I joined litsy together as home-school-life-reads. (This is totally because of Stephanie, and she says you can blame her if our obsession with this Instagram+Goodreads social media app makes us late with the fall issue!)

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5 Things to Try When Your Child Can Read, but Doesn’t

You know those people who make you feel like you’re a failure as a parent if your child isn’t reading at least three years above grade level or reading chapter books independently by kindergarten? They push my buttons, too. Parenting has a way of keeping us humble. The reality is that sometimes even when we’ve tried doing all the “right” things, we still end up with reluctant readers.

What about when a child has completed a reading program but still isn’t eagerly seeking out reading material? Here are five things to try: 

1. Book Teasers

Simply put, a book teaser is a brief read aloud from a book. To really boost your signal with book teasers, you’re going to need to do a little work on the front end. Choose a book that’s in your child’s “just right” reading zone (not too easy, not too challenging). It’s got to be the kind of book that sucks the reader in almost immediately, the kind of book that hooks a reader and demands to be devoured. During a readaloud time, you’re going to read just the first chapter of the book. If your child is resistant to readalouds, consider just starting without warning while the child is otherwise quietly engaged, maybe crafting, eating, or playing with Legos. Even if the child tunes you out at first, more likely than not, you’ll find that you soon have a listener who’s engrossed in the story in spite of him or herself. Then when you’ve finished that first chapter, ideally ending with a cliffhanger, you’re done, you big tease. When the child asks what happens next, let him or her know where the book will be located. Drop the mic.  

2. Bathroom Books 

Sitting on the toilet is boring. So is sitting in the car. Use that. Comic books and joke books are perfect candidates for bathroom and car book baskets because they’re practically irresistible to kids, and the format lends itself to just a few minutes of reading at a time. No, it’s not Shakespeare, but think of these as the gateway that will get you there one day.  

3. Let It Be Fun

Would you be excited to pick up a new book if after finishing it, you knew that you would be required to write a book report, take a quiz, or answer comprehension questions? Sometimes with all of our great intentions, we adults have a tendency to steamroll all the fun right out of reading. Certainly, we need to attach thinking and writing exercises to books, but we don’t need to do it all of the time. If you have a reluctant reader, consider throwing out accompanying assignments for a while, and just let reading be fun. How will you know that they’re reading if they aren’t doing worksheets or answering comprehension questions? You’ll observe them reading, and, we hope, eventually talking to you about getting more books. Let that be enough, at least for a while.  

4. Appeal to an Obsession

Whether it’s bugs, puppies, World War II, the Titanic, gymnastics, or… whatever, find books about that subject and keep presenting them. The more reluctant the reader, the more you should steer towards books that are picture heavy. I’ve yet to meet a kid who couldn’t be enticed to at least flip through a book or magazine about a subject near and dear to his or her heart. 

5. Give Some Thought to the Possibility that There Might Be Something Else Going On

It’s not easy to let your mind go there, but if your child reads very slowly, struggles with following directions, or has a hard time retaining information, it’s worth a chat with your pediatrician or another developmental professional to see if an evaluation is appropriate for your child. A learning disability diagnosis can truly be a gift for your child and your family if it means getting directed toward therapies and accommodations that can open a world of hope and make learning fun again.  

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Book Nerd: Library Chicken Weekly Scoreboard (9.19.17)

Disasters, ghosts, psychic ninjas, and classic detective stories racked up points on this week's Library Chicken scoreboard.

Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!

I’m very happy to report that all our Georgia and Florida folks survived Hurricane Irma without major damage. At Library Chicken HQ we were very fortunate and didn’t even lose power, so were able to watch television and play video games and (most importantly) read in well-lit rooms while the wind and rain raged outside. (The library did close for a few days, but I had laid in an emergency stock of books and all was well.) I hope that all of you also made it through the recent excitement without major issues. On to the books!

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

Speaking of disasters: in Essex, England, in 1893, rumours spread about the return of a sea monster to menace the community. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this novel, but it turned out to be mostly about recently widowed Cora, her (perhaps autistic) son, and the changing relationships among her circle of friends. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters—a great read.
(LC Score: +1)

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book either, though I’ve read and enjoyed Saunders’ short stories. It’s a ghost story: Willie Lincoln, dead at age 12 from typhoid fever, is welcomed to the graveyard by a motley assortment of its inhabitants. The narrative is told in alternating spirit voices, which took a minute to get used to but makes for a quick, engaging read. The author’s unmistakable warmth, compassion, and humor is present throughout.
(LC Score: +1)

The Lizard in the Cup by Peter Dickinson

James Pibble #5. I guess this week’s theme is I have no idea what’s coming next, because the PIbble mysteries continue to surprise with their offbeat weirdness. Here we’re on a Greek island with Pibble’s millionaire patron/employer. There are drugs, assassination attempts, and a crumbling monastery. (Believe it or not, this is Pibble’s second run-in with strange monks: the first was the subject of his third mystery, The Sinful Stones.)
(LC Score: +1)

Stray by Andrea Host

I don’t usually read self-published novels—not because I’m concerned that they’ll be of low quality (back in the day I read plenty of fanfic that was at least as good as if not better than many of the books from off the shelf at Barnes & Noble), but because I already need three Amazon wishlists to manage my to-read list and I’m afraid of what might happen if I opened the doors to the wild and wonderful world of self-publishing. This YA science fiction novel, however, came highly recommended by a friend who’s been pointing me towards great books since we were in junior high together, so of course I had to pick it up. It helps that, as part one of a four-book trilogy (yeah, I know, just go with it), this book is free for the Kindle. And it didn’t take long to get caught up in this story of a teenage Australian girl who accidentally steps through a wormhole on the way home from school and has to survive alone on a seemingly uninhabited alien world. (At least until—SPOILER ALERT—she’s rescued by psychic high-tech ninja types.) When the first book ended (or came to a pause point, since it leads directly into part two), I was more than ready to click the ‘buy’ button for the next one.
(LC Score: 0, read on Kindle)

• The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
• Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
• The Vorrh by Bruce Catling
• The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi

Here’s the thing: although we were delayed a week by Irma, the homeschool hybrid middle school that I’m teaching at this fall is about to start fall classes, which means that I don’t have quite as much time to read as I used to, and sometimes I have to return an ENTIRE STACK of GREAT BOOKS before I can get to them. Arrgh. What’s the equivalent of ‘my eyes were bigger than my stomach’ for books? RETURNED UNREAD.
(LC Score: -5, because two were returned late in addition to unread) 

Library Chicken Score for 9/19/17: -2
Running Score: 100

On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:

• The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi (not going to let this one go back to the library without a fight)
• Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King (YA apocalyptic feminism) 
• The Evolution Man Or How I Ate My Father by Roy Lewis (because my dad said I had to read it)
• One Foot in the Grave by Peter Dickinson (final James Pibble mystery)

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Great Homeschool Readalouds: Breaking Stalin’s Nose

Breaking Stalin’s Nose, set during Stalin’s great purge in the 1930s, is a great historical fiction conversation starter for discussing propaganda, witch hunts, ethics, and community.

Buy on Amazon

Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

How do we know what is right? That’s the question at the heart of this middle grades book, set in the early days of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin is the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and everybody loves him — loudly and frequently, so that their neighbors don’t suspect them of disloyalty to the state. Stalin is very sensitive to disloyalty. He takes it personally, and anyone suspected of disloyalty is tried publicly and dramatically before being shipped off to prison camps or executed. Everyone Stalin suspects always turns out to be guilty.

That’s not a problem for Sasha Zaichik, though. Nobody’s more loyal to Stalin than 10-year-old Sasha and his family. Sasha’s works for the State Security, helping Stalin track down and arrest the Soviets who aren’t loyal to their leader. Sasha couldn’t be prouder. And Sasha is counting down the days until he can join the communist youth group the Young Pioneers and pledge his official alliance to Stalin.

It only takes two days for everything that Sasha believes to shatter. First, he accidentally breaks a bust of the Dictator at his school, setting off an investigation in which State Security encourages the students to turn in the culprit, who must be a dangerous enemy of the state. Then, his beloved father is arrested in the middle of the night and taken away by the secret police, who tell Sasha that the only way he can become a Young Pioneer now is by denouncing his father as a traitor. Alone for the first time, Sasha begins to question his naive faith in Stalin’s Soviet Union, recognizing the hysteria and paranoia that make neighbors, friends, and family members turn on each other and realizing that not every person accused of and condemned for treason is necessarily guilty.

What makes it a great readaloud: Eugene Yelchin wanted to illuminate a piece of history that we don’t often get to read about in U.S. classrooms: the fear and horror that people in Stalin’s Soviet Union had to live with every day. Because Sasha’s only 10 years old, his understanding of what’s actually happening in his country develops along with the reader’s, and it’s a great book to launch discussions of propaganda, politics, and fake news. 

But be aware: This is historical fiction set in a difficult, dangerous era, and you’re likely to finish the book feeling glad that Sasha understands more about the world he’s living in but also worried about what the future holds for him. Very sensitive kids may struggle with this and with the mostly-offstage violence of the Stalinist raids. 

Quotable: “‘What The Nose so vividly demonstrates to us today,’ says Luzhko, ‘is that when we blindly believe in someone else’s idea of what is right or wrong for us as individuals, sooner or later our refusal to make our own choices could lead to the collapse of the entire political system. An entire country. The world, even.’

He looks at the class significantly and says, ‘Do you understand?’

Of course, they have no idea what he’s talking about. This Luzhko is suspicious. I always thought so. All teachers use words you hear on the radio, but he doesn’t. I don't know what’s wrong with him. I turn and walk away.”

Learn more: You may want to read up on Stalin and the Soviet Union before or after reading this book together. This BBC site gives a brief but informative overview of the political and social landscape of the 1930s Soviet Union.

(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)

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Great Books for Studying Geography in Your Homeschool

Knowing where is as important as knowing who, what, when, and how. These geography books will help you figure out the shape of the world, which can benefit your studies of other subjects including history, science, and literature.

This year, Geography Awareness Week runs from November 16-22, but geography studies should be part of your homeschool year-round. Geography has never been more relevant: Not only does the global community affect everything from which jeans we buy to what takeout we order for dinner, geography also plays a role in almost every other subject you might tackle, from history to science to literature. We’ve rounded up a collection of geography resources that will make it easy to add geography to your homeschool lesson plans, whether you’re keeping things casual or looking for a more academic approach.

Globetrotting with Folktales by Intellego Unit Studies

Make geography relevant to elementary-age kids by giving them a sense of connection. This unit study lets kids explore the globe through traditional folk tales—and learning about “Sister Fox” will help kids remember the culture and geography of Ukraine, where the story takes place. Bonus: Most of these folktales don’t show up in traditional storybooks, so this curriculum also makes a good introduction to world literature.

Eat Your Way Around the World by Jamie Aramini

Half the fun of traversing the globe is getting to try different foods, and Eat Your Way Around the World (there’s also a United States version, written by Loree Pettit) explores 30 different countries through a series of user-friendly recipes. Most can be prepared with a trip to your regular supermarket, and mapping out where people eat, say, curry or smorgasbord makes an impression no worksheet can match. The recipes are on the simple side, so if you’re inspired, you may want to follow up with a traditional cookbook with more recipes from the country you’re studying. It’s certainly hard to think of a more delicious way to study geography in your homeschool.

Discover America series by Sleeping Bear Press

With titles like A is for Aloha: A Hawai’i Alphabet and P is for Peace Garden: A North Dakota Alphabet, this thoughtfully researched, brightly illustrated series of picture books makes a warm introduction to the United States. The 51 books cover all 50 states and the District of Columbia, too. These would be fun to use with elementary students as part of a United States history and geography unit.

Geography: A Literature Approach by Beautiful Feet

Designed for grades 2 through 7, this geography program uses Holling C. Holling’s classic books Paddle to the Sea, Minn of the Mississippi, Tree in the Trail, and Seabird to teach geography—plus a little science and history. Mapping the books and external research play a big role in this curriculum, so parents should plan to be hands-on for best results. Beautiful Feet is not a secular curriculum company, and their history studies can get a bit problematic for secular homeschoolers because of that, but the geography books are mostly fine—just keep an eye out for anything you want to edit, and plan to substitute Walking With Dinosaurs (or something similar) for the creationist Dinosaurs by Design, which is recommended as an additional activity. (It would be awesome if a secular homeschooler wanted to create a totally secular version of this program!)

Geography Through Art by Sharon Jeffus

If you’re teaching geography across a wide range of ages or to a kinetic or artistic learner, this book—which includes art projects like making batik fabric or writing in calligraphy from 25 different countries—is a winner. As you explore the world’s geography, you’ll also explore an area’s indigenous art by making your own projects. You can use this as the spine of a geography-art study, or grab this book as a hands-on supplement to a more traditional geography program.

Mapping the World with Art by Ellen McHenry

Take a holistic approach to history as you make your way around the world, studying the history of maps and mapmaking along with various art techniques for creating your own maps. Teens can work their way through the projects in the books (which include activities as diverse as building a star clock and drawing a compass rose) toward the final project: a hand-drawn map of the entire world. You might want to team this text up with a current events unit or follow it up with a more political geography study since this one really focuses mainly on maps, history, and exploration. (Note: Ellen McHenry’s science isn’t secular, but I didn’t see any problems with this geography program, and I think its art focus makes it a very good pick for certain kinds of students.)

Mapping the World by Heart by David Smith

For serious cartographers, this year-long study (designed for middle to high school students) aims to send kids away with the ability to draw the world map from memory. Working toward that end, students will memorize countries, mountain ranges, rivers, bodies of water, and more, as they meticulously map each section of the globe. If you want your student to get a detailed picture of modern geographic and political boundaries, this program is a good choice. The big picture final project may also appeal to project-based homeschoolers.

The Little Man in the Map by E. Andrew Martonyi

This children’s book is a great example of how associations can help you make sense of geography. In the story, a class discovers the shape of a man in the middle of their United States map and uses that figure as a jumping off point for understanding the geography of the rest of the country. This is a great resource to help elementary students memorize the names and locations of the 50 states in the United States—and you can grab the sequel The Little Man In the Map Teaches the State Capitals! if you want to memorize state capitals while you’re at it.

If You Lived Here by Giles Laroche

This children’s book personalizes geography by illustrating what people’s homes are like in Spanish mountains, on Dutch rivers, in South African villages, and more. The book then considers why houses in different parts of the world—what geographical, environmental, and historical factors contributed to the evolution of homes in each area? The intricate bas relief collages are delightfully detailed.

Which Way USA Book Club

This geography book club delivers monthly installments of U.S. geography, focusing on two different states in each shipment. Kids solve puzzles and explore the history and geography of the featured states. If you just want to add a little U.S. geography to your routine without diving into a full curriculum, this could be a fun option.

This list is excerpted from the fall 2015 issue of home/school/life.

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Stuff We Like :: 9.15.17

Homeschool

At first I thought a more relaxed approach to teaching writing would work, but now I am going the formal route. I’m going to try out the Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Student Writing Intensive this year with my son because I like what I’ve read about it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

At Home

My 8-year-old keeps asking me to make these yeast rolls, and I’m gaining weight eating them, but they are so, so good.

My 8-year-old also asked for more zoob pieces for his birthday, so now he has 1,250 pieces. You should see the stuff he’s building. I highly recommend this set.

I finally got around to writing about what my boys love best. (No surprise: digital games)

At Home/School/Life

in the magazine: I love Claire Webb’s column about her first year of college after graduating as a homeschooler in the Summer 2017 issue.

on the blog: Beverly’s 7 Ideas to Simplify Your Homeschool Day

on twitter: I love finding new artists to follow. I’m especially enjoying these pen drawings by Lee Zimmerman.

Books We’re Loving Right Now

All of us: Blood on the River: James Town, 1607

The 11-year-old: Mattimeo

The 8-year-old: The Magic Tree House series

Me: I’m finally getting around to reading Oliver Twist.

Television

We recently finished Star Trek: The Next Generation (Netflix) with the boys, and what a fun time we had. This show generated a lot of great conversations. Now we’re backtracking and watching the original series.

We also watched Supergirl (Netflix) this summer, and I highly recommend it! I’m not a huge super hero fan, but this show is fun, upbeat, and teaches positive lessons. I also loved that my sons were watching strong female characters too.

As for documentaries, you’ve got to check out BBC’s The Hunt. (Also on Netflix.)

As for me, I loved watching Poldark, Indian Summers, The Durrells in Corfu, and Mercy Street on Amazon Prime this summer. They are all excellent programs.

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15 Ways Homeschooling Is Like Living in a Fraternity House

1

Someone is always complaining about being hungry.

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2

People always want to plan some weird party. (“Hey, let’s have a Minecraft-My Little Pony-toga party. It will be epic!”)

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3

There are always random piles of laundry that no one wants to claim.

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4

Pants are optional.

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5

Someone’s always making a crazy face in pictures.

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6

Usually, a long stretch of peace and quiet is a bad sign.

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7

You occasionally lie to your parents about what’s going on at your house.

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8

Someone’s always obsessed with a particular song.

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9

You sometimes worry that your neighbors might call the police.

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10

Approximately one-third of the items in your house at any given time have been repaired by duct tape or super glue.

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11

People are always bumping into things.

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12

Somebody’s always wearing a hat.

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13

People build crazy machines. They often work.

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14

You wish you knew more synonyms for “shenanigans.”

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15

Telling someone what grade you’re in is a complicated process.

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I originally wrote this for Atlanta Homeschool way back in 2013, but it remains my most popular piece of homeschool writing ever, so I thought I'd repost it here!

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At Home with the Editors: Planning Daily Lessons

Shelli keeps the big picture in mind when she’s making her homeschool’s day-to-day plan.

I’m definitely what you would call a planner, but I am not a rigid planner. If I didn’t make some kind of homeschool schedule, I would wake up each morning and begin focusing on random stuff. Maybe it would be educational, or maybe I’d clean the house, or maybe I’d exercise or write. I wouldn’t waste the time, but since we have specific goals we’d like to accomplish, I have to make sure I make those a priority and do them first. I save the random stuff for late afternoons and weekends.

My system for planning daily lessons has evolved over the years until I landed on what seems the simplest way to do it for me. It may be too simple and/or kind of messy for you. I take notes in different places for different reasons, and it's a little different from Amy’s bullet journal, but since we all have to figure out our own way of doing things, I’ll tell you what I do.

A Master List

PHOTO BY SHELLI BOND PABIS

I keep one “priority list,” which I made during the summer, on what I’d like to accomplish this coming year with the boys. It’s a general list and not in any order. I note a few of my curriculum choices, but not all of them. I don’t need to know the details because I’ve already figured out the books and curricula, and I keep them in stacks around my room, so I can grab what I need when I need it.

As you can see in the photo, I have a list for each boy. (I’ve covered their names for privacy.)  I also have a list of lessons that I do with the boys together. In the bottom right hand corner, I’ve listed the things they’ve told me they want to study this year, and we’ll probably add more to that later.

This list is simply a reminder to me as I plan our daily lessons: “Shelli, don’t forget to use News-O-Matic. Or that new cursive workbook.” “Don’t forget that the 8-year-old wants to do more science experiments.” I keep the list right on top of my desk, which is crucial to remembering to use it.

The Daily Lesson Plan

PHOTO BY SHELLI BOND PABIS

As far as planning our daily lessons, I am super sophisticated. (NOT!) I keep a stack of blank scrap paper that I’ve cut into small squares (recycled from odd prints outs that I don’t need anymore) on my desk, and every morning (or — if I’m really on the ball — the night before), I make a list of what I hope to accomplish that day. 

(I also start off the year by making a “I hope to accomplish…” weekly schedule too, which tells me that it works pretty well if I, for example, do math on Mondays & Wednesdays and writing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I usually stop referring to this after I get into a groove for daily planning.)

This agenda is not set in stone, but I always put the most important item first. As you can see in the photo, “Music Theory” is at the top for Monday because in the afternoon, my son has his piano lesson, and I don’t want to forget to have him do his theory homework. We may or may not get to our Spanish lesson, and that’s okay. Spanish will rotate into a higher “priority” position on another day. (See my post: Our “Order of Things.”)

This little list of our “daily plan” gets thrown away at the end of the day after I’ve recorded what we’ve actually done on my homeschool chart.

The Homeschool Chart

PHOTO BY SHELLI BOND PABIS

The other item I keep on my desk is a chart I created for myself so that I can record what we’ve actually done that day.  Our day may have turned out a little (or a lot) different from my plan, and that’s okay. I use the chart to note what happened, and it’s used for record keeping and attendance. With the chart, I can see what we’ve already worked on this week, which helps me decide what the priority will be the next day.

By the end of the week, these charts can look pretty messy. I use a lot of abbreviations that I’ve created for myself, and most of my notes are brief enough to fit into the boxes, or I might spill over into another box. I don’t worry about being neat because I’m the only person who will see these charts. (Note: The chart in the photo is from this summer when we were going lighter on lessons, so it’s not nearly as messy as a chart from mid-winter.)

These charts get filed into my boys’ yearly portfolios (3-ring binders). (The portfolios are where I keep loose worksheets, fliers to museums we visit, receipts for classes, and the items required by law in my state.)

Click here, if you’d like to download a chart to adapt to your needs.

This system is working well for me right now, and it helps me not worry about finishing any particular curriculum in one year. We can slow down and focus on areas that need more attention, or we can skip those things that don’t seem necessary, which becomes apparent as we move through the year. As long as I can see that the boys are making progress, I’m happy. 

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Book Nerd: Library Chicken Weekly Scoreboard (9.12.17)

Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!

It’s a little hard to focus on Library Chicken today. As I write this (on Friday), it’s gorgeous outside — good weather for everyone who is in the traffic jam that is I-75, heading north from Florida up into Georgia, and for all the folks in Savannah and on the coast who will be heading west today and tomorrow. I hope that everyone is able to ride out the storm safely with family, friends, and pets, and plenty of board games and books to keep you busy.

American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work by Susan Cheever

I’m still working my way through a stack of Alcott and Alcott-adjacent fiction and nonfiction — as usual, I’ve gone way beyond normal prep (for my middle schoolers who will be reading Little Women soon) into near-obsession, but that’s part of the fun of Library Chicken, right? This short book is a good introduction to the astonishing group of literary giants and Transcendentalist thinkers who became friends and neighbors in Concord, Mass., though it’s not without flaws. Cheever’s chronology is hard to follow and she can be sloppy about details. She also seems to disapprove slightly of abolitionists and their uncompromising stance on slavery which seems...odd? To say the least? That said, it’s a quick, engaging read and a good way to get to know the players.
(LC Score: +1)

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Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia by Sterling F. Delano

Okay, Mr. Delano, if you’re going to promise me the “dark side”, you’d better have something more up your sleeve than a smallpox scare and mismanaged finances. Brook Farm was an 1841 experiment in utopian communal living founded by George Ripley and inspired by Transcendentalist thinking. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an early resident but he didn’t stay long, and the community failed to attract the support of other notable Transcendentalists, including Emerson. (It did, however, last a heck of a lot longer than Bronson Alcott’s version of utopia, Fruitlands. And no one almost starved to death, Bronson.) Despite the subtitle, there’s nothing salacious in this scholarly account of the community, which actually worked out pretty well for a while (lasting about 5 years), all things considered.
(LC Score: +1)

[Note from Amy: Fruitlands was a HOT MESS. And Bronson Alcott is THE WORST. You can go read a little summary of the sheer terribleness of the venture on the New England Historical Society's website, but do so with care because it is a rabbit hole, and you will want to find out more and more. And you will become increasingly convinced that Bronson Alcott is a terrible, terrible father, despite what Little Women may have led you to believe. OK, that's it, carry on.]

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The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism by Megan Marshall

WHY am I just learning about the Peabody sisters NOW? How is it that we’ve all heard of Emerson and Thoreau but no one knows about Elizabeth Peabody? (And Margaret Fuller, but I haven’t gotten to her bio yet.) This wonderful, entertaining biography follows sisters Sophia (an artist who married Nathaniel Hawthorne), Mary (who married educational reformer Horace Mann), and the amazing Elizabeth, who, aside from being a prominent Transcendentalist thinker, was also a writer, speaker, small business (bookstore) owner, editor, publisher, and educator who opened the first American kindergarten and successfully campaigned for free public kindergarten throughout the United States. WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF HER? (I mean, I think we all know why, but I’ll spare you my rant about sexism and patriarchy <sigh> so we can get on with the books.) I loved this bio, but was frustrated when it ended with Sophia’s marriage to Hawthorne, about halfway through the sisters’ lives and well before the kindergarten campaign that was to be Elizabeth’s primary legacy. There’s no apparent reason to end it there; it seems almost as if the author intended to write two volumes (there’s certainly enough material) but decided to stop after the first one. I am now on a hunt for other Peabody biographies (of which there seem to be very few <sigh>).
(LC Score: +1)

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The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel’s been popping up all over Library Chicken today, so it’s appropriate that I’m revisiting his novels. I read Seven Gables two or three times growing up but I had almost no memory of the plot, about a family cursed by greed, whose patriarch condemned an innocent man for witchcraft in order to get his land. It’s not a complicated story, but the tone and descriptions are delightfully grim and creepy, which is, I think, what drew me to the book when I was younger.
(LC Score: 0, still working on the Library of America anthology)

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The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Stephenson is a modern master of science fiction and I was looking forward to this (very long) book, but ended up spending most of it trying to decide if it was entertaining or irritating. There’s good stuff here — time travel powered by quantum physics and magic! satire targeting governmental bureaucracy! witches who just don’t give a damn! — but ultimately the clash of fun over-the-top ridiculousness (Vikings attacking the local Walmart!) with the literally world-changing and death-dealing effects of time travel (that our main characters have zero ethical qualms about putting into the hands of the American military) didn’t work for me. And it turns out to be part one of a series (presumably), ending on a cliff-hanger and leaving the main plot unresolved, so yeah, not for me, unfortunately.
(LC Score: +½, returned late) 

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Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

Well, darn it. Amy made me read this even though I’ve told her and told her that (1) I hate Southern gothic literature (where everyone is sweaty all the time and has an insane cousin living in the attic) and (2) I hate Faulkner in particular (I had to read As I Lay Dying in high school and have never recovered), but then it turned out that I kinda-sorta didn’t hate this which is the worst. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Ivy Compton-Burnett: both authors have distinctive, easily-parodied, hard-to-understand narrative styles, and both demonstrate a refreshing unconcern as to whether readers will be able to successfully navigate their text. (I imagine them having tea together, discussing the art of writing:

“Can you believe all those so-called writers who actually care about whether people can understand their work?”

“What I say, my dear, is that if someone isn’t willing to spend an hour or two close-reading each page — well, then, clearly they are some kind of reading dilettante who has no business opening one of my carefully crafted novels.”

“Hear, hear. More Earl Grey?”)

(NOTE: The preceding is almost certainly not an accurate representation of said authors, but Wikipedia tells me that their lifetimes overlapped very closely so that’s my new headcanon and you can’t stop me.)

For me, there’s a puzzle-solving aspect with both authors that I enjoy — at least up until the point where I’ve had enough and throw the book across the room. I did not enjoy all the racism and misogyny, but it wasn’t unexpected. I have long had the impression that Faulkner was one of those manly-men authors (see: Hemingway) who I’ve felt free to despise without ever bothering to read their work, but now I guess I’ll go back and read some of his other books and see if any of my ideas were accurate. Ugh. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, AMY.
(LC Score: +½, returned late)

Library Chicken Score for 9/12/17: 4
Running Score: 102

On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:

• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (my name finally came up on the hold list, yay!)
• The Lizard in the Cup by Peter Dickinson (James Pibble mysteries #5) 
• The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (sequel to The Three-Body Problem)
• Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism by Chris Jennings (let’s see if other people were able to go longer than six months, Bronson)

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Great Homeschool Readalouds: Sideways Stories from Wayside School

Buy on Amazon

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

In brief: Wayside School is definitely not normal. A dead rat infiltrates the third grade classroom in a dirty raincoat. A particularly nasty teacher turns her pupils into apples. Maurecia eats people-flavored ice cream. (It’s not what you think.) Leslie tries to sell of her toes. Poor Todd gets sent home on the kindergarten bus every day. Kathy hates everyone. And what really happened to the 19th floor? 

What makes it a great readaloud: You might have trouble finishing sentences because you’re laughing so hard, but that’s just part of the fun. It’s easy to see this book — a collection of interrelated stories—as a precursor to satirists like Vonnegut or Heller — it’s full of hilarious moments that, on reflection, critique everything from stereotyping to the education system in some pretty spot-on ways. Mostly, though, it’s just plain fun to read, full of silly adventure and memorably odd characters.

But be aware: Some of the humor might seem a little mean or old-fashioned to modern-day readers.

Quotable: “Dameon had hazel eyes with a little black dot in the middle of each of them. The dots were called pupils. So was Dameon. He was a pupil in Mrs. Jewl’s class.”

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Stuff We Like :: 9.8.17

This week has been NUTS! We officially started 10th grade and 4th grade in our homeschool, and Jason’s school (where I am teaching a motley crew of classes, including Latin, AP English, and Greek Literature as well as mentoring all of this year’s seniors) officially opened its doors for the 2017-18 school year. In other news, I am helping support all the friendly delivery people at our local delivery joints and I am learning to love my daily cup of coffee in an entirely new way. Which is all a long way of saying this may be a short round-up! 

around the web

I know the college drop-off is looming in our future, so of course this essay made me cry.

This is the most introvert-perfect book club ever! (Now I want to start one…)

Netflix is making a series for the Who Was biographies! Sign us up.

at home/school/life

on the blog: What can you do after high school if you don’t want to jump right into college? A lot! (People sometimes ask me what the difference is between the magazine and the blog, and I think this story—from the magazine—is a great example: There’s tons of original reporting, lots of specific resources, and more room to explore a topic thoroughly in the magazine.)

one year ago: Start a joy journal. (Still one of my favorite pieces of homeschool advice!)

two years ago: We loved Book Scavenger (and now there’s a sequel -- thanks A!)

at home

I did not read anything not related to classes or work, I did not make any progress on my socks (though I did make the heel turn before I had to pause, and it went surprisingly well), I did not cook anything, I did not watch anything except for 12 Angry Men, which we screened for our first school movie club. I am kind of boring this week, so maybe you could tell me something fun you did in the comments? :)

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